Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Happy Design, the company who made the beautifull Tiger Meet 2011 Mirage 2000C camo as well as the now, most famous "Petit prince" 30,000 hours commemorative paint job on the Rafale C118 and C121 has published a video and some interesting pictures of the different steps of the painting process made by the company ACOS. It took them only 6 days to complete the job using a paint with a different chemical base than the Rafale usual paint in order to remove it without damaging the military coating of the jets.

Friday, August 26, 2011

"Neu-Neu" is the nickname of a legendary French squadron, the "Normandie-Niemen" :

In 1942, during World War II, after an initiative by the General De Gaulle, some French entered the Resistance, while others moved to UK, Nothern Africa, Middle East, and Soviet Union so as to fight the Nazis.

Upon those people, some founded the squadron "Normandie" in Libanon. The "Normandie" was then moved to the Ivanoso airfield (250km North East of Moscow) and started its epic battle against the Luftwaffe in 1943, operating the Yak 3 among other types.

They rapidly became famous, decorated by both France and Soviet Union. Staline himself, in July 1944 added "Niemen" to "Normandie" after the name of a river and its associated battle. During the war, the Normandie-Niemen flew 5240 missions, and got 273 confirmed air victories with 36 probable.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Since the Charles de Gaulle is not taking part in the no flight zone effort anymore, the French Forces sortie rate has decreased significantly during the last week.
Without the 10 Rafale M of the aircraft carrier, only 5 French Air Force Rafale B/C are still involved in Libya from the Sigonella Air Base. (let's not forget that 3 other Rafale B/C have also been deployed in Afghanistan)

Looking at the stats, le number of CAS/Interdiction sortie has only slightly decreased (-8%) during the last week, however, the number of reconnaissance sortie has fallen by 30%

Monday, August 15, 2011

Due to a very favourable exchange rate between Swiss Franc and Euro, right now, each fighter considered by Switzerland is less expensive.

In an interview given to the "SonntagsBlick" Euli Maurer, suggest that the DDPS benefits from this situation.

"If the Euro remains weak, we save tens of millions."

Euro-Swiss Franc exchange rate shows that since the 2008 Swiss Air Force evaluation, the Rafale price has become 30% cheaper (same for the Gripen and Eurofighter)
Given an hypothetical Rafale unit price of €70million, the Swiss government would save almost CHF 500 million for a fleet of 22 aircrafts.

Friday August 12th, 4:15 pm, the Charles de Gaulle is making the last maneuvers in the Toulon port. The French aircraft carrier will rest reveral months in order to get the required maintenance work after almost 9 month at sea.
The crew was welcome by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Defense Minister Gerard longuet

The stats of the air group (10 Rafale, 6 Super Etendard, 2 hawkeye and Pedro helicopters) are impressive.

Since March 20th when it was engaged in the Libyan operations the CdG has logged :

138 days at sea (4,5 months) with a non stop period of 63 sailing days

40.000 nautic miles (more than 70,000 km, almost twice the earth circonference)

The winner of the Indian air force’s $12 billion Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) fighter competition should soon emerge, as the government is set to formally begin the process of identifying the lowest bidder in early September.

The Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale are the final contenders left in the race and Indian government officials have finalized how they will judge offset and industrial participation offers that are crucial in deciding which company will be chosen to supply the initial order for 126 fighters. However, a defense ministry official indicates that the air force wants contractual options to be exercised immediately, which would boost the buy to 189 fighters and the program value to almost $20 billion.[...]

bullet points :

Formula has been found to benchmark the offers to provide a like-for-like comparison.

Offset packages review almost completed

50% offsets requirement (at least $6 billion) one of the most challenging in recent aerospace contracting.

India’s aerospace industry not considered mature enough to absorb all offsets.

Dassault and Eurofighter confident that their packages meet what is required.

Eurofighter and Dassault have insisted that their bids are competitive

The local MMRCA team offices of the four eliminated contenders remain fully staffed: officials at all four believe that things are delicate enough in the final phase for them to remain in the country.

If commercial bids are examinated next month, lowest bidder could be named in November-December and a contract signed before the end of March.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

First, if you read French, don't miss the July issue of Air fan (N°392). The main article is about the french Navy air fleet engagment in Libya

Also available is the september issue of Air Forces Monthly featuring an analysis of the Rafale-Typhoon confrontation for the Indian MMRCA market. This is the first time since november 2007 that the Rafale is on the cover of the most famous military aircraft magazine... almost a collector ;)

Friday, August 5, 2011

Aug 5 (Reuters) - Negotiations have resumed to sell Dassault Aviation's Rafale fighterjets to the United Arab Emirates, and a deal could be sealed between September and the end of the year, French daily La Tribune said on Friday.

Because of several dissensions with President Dilma Rousseff, the Brasilian Defense Minister has resigned yesterday August 4th.

Nelson Jobim resignation could be seen as a bad omen for the Rafale as he was a strong supporter of the French offer within the Brazilian government. Nevertheless, his successor, Celso Amorim is also known to have recommended the Dassault fighter. Therefore, the preference of Brazilian Defense Ministry may remain the same despite this political change.

Monday, August 1, 2011

According to Ajai Shukla, from Broadsword blog, the Indian contest may very well be scraped if the 2 finalist's bids turn out to be too high.

[...] If the MoD committee that is currently benchmarking the MMRCA concludes that Rs 42,000 crore is a decade-old estimation that should be increased due to inflation by 50%, the benchmark for that contract will be pegged at Rs 63,000 crore. When the Eurofighter’s and Dassault’s bids are opened, if both turn out to be notably higher, the MoD will scrap the MMRCA tender. On the other hand, if the lower bid is less than or approximates the benchmark, that bid will be accepted.
[...]Dassault’s quote for 126 MMRCAs could be as much as $20 billion, twice the initially estimated figure.

Aerospace industry estimations put the cost of the Eurofighter Typhoon about 25% higher than the Rafale. That would put the cost of 126 Typhoons at about $25 billion.

The Indian price bids, however, involve a different calculation. The South Block tender demands price quotes on a “life-cycle” basis, a complex and detailed format that factors in the cost of 126 fighters over their estimated service life of 40 years. Bids are broken down into seven heads --- M-1 to M-7 --- and include the fly-away cost of the fighter; cost of spare parts; operating costs; cost of inspections and maintenance; transfer of technology; and training expenses. The final figure, M-8, is the overall cost, reached by adding up M-1 to M-7.

Executives from Rafale and Eurofighter agree that Rs 42,000 crore is an outdated price and that the survival of the MMRCA contract now depends upon how much higher the MoD is willing to raise the benchmark.